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Chances are, unless you’ve been living on a remote island somewhere, you’ve heard about the obesity guidelines published by the AAP in February of this year. These are the first clinical guidelines on obesity management and treatment in children, and they’re not without controversy! While some have applauded this publication as long-overdue, others worry about overreach and unintended consequences.
In early April, the US Department of Justice sent out an email notifying clinicians of a new opioid-related training requirement for DEA registered-providers. Over the past several weeks, there's been chatter on social media and discussion boards about what this new training is, who needs it, and how to fulfill it. We're here to share that we're working on OUD Decoded: A DEA-Compliant Audio Course and will make it available by July 2023!
Our team dug through the internet (and read through the entire MATE Act 🤓) to deliver you the information below.
Understanding the signs and symptoms of cataracts is essential for accurate diagnosis and appropriate treatment planning. Let’s explore the key indicators that can help us as medical providers to identify and address cataracts effectively.
We know that chronic hepatitis B infection can lead to substantial morbidity and mortality. While there is no cure, antiviral treatment, monitoring, and liver cancer surveillance can improve outcomes for people living with hepatitis B. Additionally, effective preventative hepatitis B vaccines are available.
Until recently, guidelines recommended that only people at high risk of infection be screened for hepatitis B virus (HBV). Under that policy, we missed a lot of people: only an estimated 1 in 3 people in the U.S. with hepatitis B are aware they are infected.
As the role of urgent care clinicians continues to expand in the house of medicine and we take on more responsibilities, it’s our job as clinicians to ask ourselves:
When my daughter was diagnosed with PFAPA (Periodic Fever, Aphthous Stomatitis, Pharyngitis, and Adenitis) syndrome, I wasn’t surprised. I myself had suffered from a mysterious recurrent fever in my childhood, and at some point in medical school, I pinpointed PFAPA as the most likely cause.
But I was surprised to discover just how common it actually is. Did you know that PFAPA is the most common type of recurrent fever syndrome in children?
As primary care clinicians, we play a crucial role in helping our patients make healthier food choices. But with all the contradicting information out there, sifting through nutrition evidence can be daunting.
One diet that has evidence for helping prevent disease and promote better health is a whole-food, plant-based diet.
This diet focuses on eating whole grains, fruits and vegetables that have undergone minimal processing. Studies have shown that this approach is associated with health promotion and disease prevention, and that a plant-based diet is a cost-effective, low-risk intervention that may lower BMI, BP, HgbA1c and cholesterol levels.
As Michael Pollan says in his book In Defense of Food: “Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.”
PA Students, the clinical rotation year is an exciting and challenging time, as you’re finally able to apply all that you’ve learned in the didactic year to real-world patients. On the other hand, this year is also stressful and can feel overwhelming with all the changes and newness.
For over a decade I’ve been on PA faculty, and every year, the start of the clinical year brings up the same emotion in all of my students. I think the proper word for this emotion is “scited,” which was coined by author Glennon Doyle and is the combination of “scared” and “excited.”
All of my students ask the same questions… “What are my rotations going to be like?” “How do I not look like a doofus on the first day?” “What kind of questions are preceptors going to ask me?” And then, of course, the classic question, “What is going to be on the test?”
My Hippo PA team understands what it is like to feel “scited” about this year, because we’ve lived that experience, and walked hundreds of students through it.
Here’s my advice:
Hippo has been a longtime partner of the Urgent Care Association (UCA), the trade association that represents Urgent Care clinicians and business professionals. We’ve worked together on several projects over the years, and this year we worked on two new projects: Urgent Care MA Bootcamp, a video-based onboarding program for MAs, and “Hippo Live at UCA”, a dedicated clinical track during UCA’s annual convention. While we are pros when it comes to creating video content, this was the Urgent Care team’s first time putting on a live event. And while it was a lot of work, it was a fantastic experience! If you weren’t able to attend live, here is a brief recap:
Cancer screening is a critical part of primary care practice, and most of us can recite guidelines in our sleep. That said, cancer screening can feel a little tricky in our transgender population, especially when we are still learning to navigate this sensitive topic as a general part of our practice.
When helping primary care patients navigate heart disease prevention, we all know the big interventions to cover: quitting smoking, exercising, and eating a healthy diet with more plant-based foods. But are you also covering these less prominent risk factors?
As PA-Cs everywhere are starting the 1st quarter of the new PANRE-LA, we know anxiety is high. Five minutes seems like a long time when we are watching our favorite sports team try to come from behind or desperately try to hold on to the lead. But when that PANRE-LA timer starts to tick down, five minutes a question doesn’t seem that long at all. And we know that panic can set in quickly with each passing minute.
What’s the secret sauce that makes Hippo Education’s urgent care products so popular with 150 provider networks and leading to a partnership with the Urgent Care Association?
It all starts with our educational philosophy.
Are you deciding if the PANRE-LA is right for you? Have you already signed up for it? Let the PA team at Hippo Education help you feel confident as we all approach these uncharted waters together.
I am very proud of Hippo’s Race and Medicine series and its efforts to foster a rational discussion around an important topic.
Our CEO Aaron Bright, MD, sat down to discuss the remarkable way in which Hippo’s giving back where it really counts this holiday season.
In this bonus content of AAPA Primary Care RAP, our hosts Adrian Banning DHSc, MMS, PA-C, DHSc and Kris Maday MS, PA-C, DFAAPA chat with AAPA President Jennifer Orozco, who discusses her journey from being a PA in Chicago to becoming the leader of the AAPA, and even shares her insights into how to balance your own wellbeing while taking care of the wellbeing of others.
Join us for a Q&A with emergency physician/Hippo CEO Aaron Bright as we pick his brain on one of the biggest issues in modern clinical practice.
An Interview with PAs
Wellness and Self Care
Your clinical year will be one like no other that you have ever experienced. Changing rotations every two, four, six or maybe even eight weeks is a lot of change. Some of you will be moving physically to new places for each rotation which adds the extra stress of packing, driving, maybe even flying and settling into new digs right as you start a new rotation. It can be a lot.
Tips for Post-Graduate Residency
I graduated from PA 17 years ago in 2004 and that year only one of my classmates did a post-graduate residency and it was kind of by mistake. She followed a fiancé far from home, hated her first job, and took a dermatology residency spot out of necessity when her engagement broke up and she had a lease in a city with no job. She ended up loving dermatology and still practices it to this day. Residencies were just not commonplace ‘back then’.
CME Logging and Tips
You’ve passed your PANCE (Congratulations!!!), landed your first job as a PA, and now it’s time to start focusing on maintaining your NCCPA certification. Part of that process is obtaining and logging continuing medical education (CME) credits. When I first graduated, it was hard to keep straight the different types of CME credits. How do I know if an activity counts as Category 1 or 2? What the heck is the difference between Category 1 and Category 2? What records do I need to keep in case I get audited by the NCCPA? Wait, I can get audited...like the IRS audits taxes?!
Resume Writing Tips and Tricks
You’re about to graduate from PA school and enter the job market. Congratulations! Time to craft your resume, a rite of passage as a professional. Maybe you’ll dust off those cobwebs from an old resume, or create a new one from scratch. But where do you start? Googling “How to write a resume” will return an endless number of (maybe helpful) results. But, if you’re anything like me, I still had questions like, “Do I include my previous job experience, like before PA school?” or “Do I include my clinical rotations?” I was fortunate to have a wonderful staff member at my PA program that helped me write my first professional resume. So, let me pay it forward to you all.
Job Interviews
If you’ve listened to our audio series, you’ll know there are several things that make my palms start to sweat. Presentations on rounds. The first day of a new clinical rotation. Mariachi bands. Well, here’s another one: job interviews.
Carbon Health’s growth is off the charts—they are adding 60 new urgent care clinics this year, with projected five-year growth of 5,900%. Roger Wu, Medical Director at Carbon Health, discusses how a key to the organization’s success is Carbon’s commitment to clinician education and career development. Through a partnership with Hippo Education, Carbon’s culture of lifelong learning has fostered a clinician retention rate of 95% that continues to fuel their success.
Urgent care centers represent a vital component of the American health care system, as evidenced by their rapid growth over the last decade and urgent care’s role during the COVID-19 pandemic; but demand for urgent care services has highlighted a need for focused education for the clinicians practicing in this nuanced environment. By equipping clinicians with specialized urgent care education, urgent care centers can better support their teams and improve patient outcomes.
Staying educated is different before and after training
My specialty is Emergency Medicine but I think the following sentiment applies to all clinicians: doctors, PAs, NPs, nurses, techs… the whole team.
Do you remember, in school or in residency, when you made a great diagnosis, did some cool procedure, or saved the day in some way? What happened next? High fives all around, proud mentors, stories at rounds, teaching peers how you did it, drinks after work… good times.
Tips for Preparing Clinicians for Urgent Care
With clinicians from different specialties and experience levels, onboarding for urgent care can be challenging. These tips will help you prepare your clinicians for the urgent care setting, so they’re equipped and confident from day one.
Hello.
I’m a thinker. I don’t mean in the Socrates kind of way. I just mean that if you present me with a new problem my brain tends to go deep on it right away. I start thinking of nuance and options and outcomes and before I know it I’m underwater in data and ideas. This can be paralyzing for me if I don’t get back to the surface. See for reference: choosing a medical school, deciding to leave community practice for academics, and whether to get that full-back unicorn tattoo.
With the help of the Hippo team I started a monthly(ish) newsletter. If you’re a medical practitioner please check it out. I hope to bring some good stuff for you each month.
Wine and chocolate are great and horrible
I’ve had a personal morbid fascination with the medical literature since medical school. I’ve lived long enough to see several things be portrayed in the professional and layperson literature as miraculously beneficial treatments only to be the polar opposite in the next study or after failing to be replicable long term. It’s nuts. I’m not a statistician but I’ve been trying to become more facile with statistics (I highly recommend this amazing little book) and especially the many kinds of bias that can influence the “conclusions” of studies.
The good physician knows his patient through and through, and his knowledge is bought dearly. Time, sympathy, and understanding must be lavishly dispensed, but the reward is to be found in that personal bond which forms the greatest satisfaction of the practice of medicine. One of the essential qualities of the clinician is his interest in humanity, for the secret of the care of the patient is in caring for the patient.” -Dr. Francis Weld Peabody, 1927
The Hippo Education crew took a well-deserved retreat to New Orleans this past week. As a remote company we treasure the opportunity to come together IRL. The company was wonderful, the city fascinating, and the beignets plentiful.
I have had a task on my to-do list for forever, inspired by all kinds of deep people, to write thank you notes to people who had a profound impact on my life. I don’t know why I never get to it. But, the other day I did one. I happened upon the email address of a doctor named Rinaldo Canalis. I’d been looking for a place to send him a note that wouldn’t get thrown away (like a hospital address might) for years.
A few weeks ago I woke up with that strange feeling of health and energy that comes from the absence of discomfort. After an epic 10 day trip to Indonesia focused on surfing in an environment at times paradise-like and at times very polluted, I got slapped down for a week or so by a combination of jet lag and some sort of severely crampy GI bug. The first morning I woke up not feeling horrible, felt amazing.
I am Aaron Bright and I am an emergency physician and the CEO and founder of Hippo Education. You can find out a little more about me here.
